In search of...

The perfect apple crisp.

It's no secret, I love apple crisp and every fall I search for a recipe that will become my recipe. This year I was determined to come up with my own, which is where I take another recipe and change it up for our tastes. I will tell you, I tried three times and I wasn't really thrilled with any of the attempts. Our first try ended in the trash because of a cayenne- cinnamon mix up. The second try, I adjusted the amounts of cinnamon and added to ginger to get the sweet spicy taste, which was nice but wasn't spectacular. The third time, I went to a different recipe all together and adjusted the cinnamon and that still didn't satisfy.

Until, I found a recipe from Al Roker. I know, seems a little strange, but I found it in my Facebook feed and I read it and thought why not try it. This did not disappoint! We all loved it. I believe I have found my favorite apple crisp recipe. I made some changes to the recipe and that is what I will share below but you can check out the original recipe in the link above.

Ingredients

Apple Filling:

8 cups of assorted apples (pears can be used)

6 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 tablespoons butter

1/8 cup apple cider

Crispy Topping:

1-1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup old fashioned oats

1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

Pinch ground nutmeg

8 tablespoons butter (1 stick), softened

Preparation

Cook apples:

Halve, core and slice apples. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the sugar and spices. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tablespoons butter to melt. Add the apples and stir well. Cover skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until juices are released and apple have begun to soften, about 15 minutes. Uncover skillet and add cider. Continue to simmer the apples until juices have thickened, another 5-6 minutes.

Make crispy topping:

Preheat oven to 350'F. In a large bowl, mix flour, brown sugar, old fashioned oats, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add butter and work in with your fingers until mixture is crumbly. Use your hands to squeeze and press mixture together so that clumps form, this gets the butter fully incorporated and moistens the crumb thoroughly. Break up large clumps into smaller pieces.

Bake crisp:

Place cooked apples and all the syrupy liquid into a pre-buttered 9x13 baking dish. Spread the crispy topping mixture over the top of the apples.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is crispy. 

Apple crisp served with vanilla ice cream flavored with carmel and miniature chocolate peanut butter cups.

Get Out and Go...

Hiking and sharing. 

The past couple of weeks we have been busy getting out and hiking locally. The weather has been prefect and the leaves this year have been unbelievable!

My friend Hollie at Muscles and Munchkins asked me to share with her readers some inspiration to get out and go. Check out my two part series over at Muscles and Munchkins on Hiking with Your Kids: How to Plan and Hiking with Your Kids: Patience and Practice for some ways to approach hiking with your kids. 

Fall Break...

Comes to an end. 

This past weekend was the end of our two week fall break. We had a great time checking out parks, hiking, going on scavenger hunts, going to the gym, playing in our backyard, discovering the best apple crisp recipe, and hanging out with friends. 

This is a picture from our family hike at Holliday Park. Unfortunately, it was cut short because of rain but we were able to spend sometime outside. I learned that while hiking and doing scavenger hunts I enjoy making bouquets out of my finds, which made my head swim with ideas of things to make. 

We have had fun changing up our routine for a couple weeks and enjoying the awesome Indian summer weather but I think we are all ready to get back into our school routine, again. 

Fall Break...

Traditions.

This weekend was full of so many of the things we love to do during fall break. We carved pumpkins, had family movie night, ate apple crisp and went for hike.

Every time I see Snake Grass, Emerson and I try to make it whistle. My brothers and I spent a lot of time as kids playing in the creek near our house and loved when the Snake Grass was strong enough to blow like a whistle. That is my favorite picture of the weekend.

This is one that I love also!

Get out and go...

Start a series. 

I wrote this post a couple years ago during one of my attempts at starting this blog. I have known since I had the idea of starting a blog I would share my travels. I have been going through the handfuls of posts that are still drafts and found this. The story on how we decided to see as many of our national parks as we can and when I came up the Get Out and Go idea for my blog. This was written in early 2012.

This past October (2011), we had some friends getting married in Las Vegas. Eric was all set to go and I was planning on staying home because we had a three month old baby. As we got closer to October, I was really comfortable with the idea of tagging along with the baby and hanging out while he went to the wedding. The only things I asked to do was to go to the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon and the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. I knew that those places were easy trips to make so, I was not asking for too much.

Eric agreed to those things and started looking into it how to get there, where to get a car, and where we should stay. As he was figuring out those details he started looking at other parks near by and what else we could see and if adding more days before the wedding or after the wedding would be better.  That's when he came up with the idea to fly out early rent a car and go to Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon National Parks. I was like awesome, lets do this but we will only do little hikes because we have a three month old and I will have to feed him and that might be hard to do and no camping.

We flew to Vegas, got in a car and drove for what seemed like forever to get to Zion and when we got there we were blown away. We found an easy hike up a side of a mountain and set out on our first family hike.

After we hiked the short hike and shuttled to a few points of interest we went to the lodge area to hang out on the lawn, have some lunch, and feed the baby.  During that time, we talked about going to more parks because we bought a park pass and I said why not go see more before the pass expires.  That, ladies and gentlemen, is how it all started.  We bought a park pass that was good for a year and I wanted to get our moneys worth. I might have been a little drunk on the view and the moment when I suggested that.

The great lawn.

So, I think Zion National Park, a park I did not know existed until a few weeks before our trip, was the catalyst for wanting to go to as many national parks as we can. Look at that view, that prefect blue sky, the red rocks of those mountains and if you could feel the warmth of the sun and the smell of fall in the air, you would totally get it.

Here is a little back ground, so you can see that this idea wasn't completely off of our radar. When I met Eric, he was preparing to go on a camping trip to Glacier, Tetons and Yellowstone National Parks with some college friends. I had been to the Smokey Mountains, Blue Ridge Trail and Rock Mountain National Parks. So, going to the parks is something that both of us had done without the other. I grew up camping and hiking. He is a boy and like most boys, loves doing outdoor things like that.

____________________________

That was where I had ended the story, before.

We went on to see several other places, then to Arizona and a short stay in Flagstaff before heading back to see the Hoover Dam, the Las Vegas sign and our friends get married.

That was when our family trips started. This story was the reason why I wanted to write my Get Out and Go series. We love traveling together, since we started dating we have covered many miles and over half of the states. With each trip, I journaled and photographed everything. I wanted to share our travels beyond those journals to encourage others to get out and go and see these places that our great country has to offer. Like Zion, a place I didn't know until shortly before the trip. As well as, showing that these trips can be done with kids of any age.

My goal with writing this series is to share our stories from our smallest of journeys to the biggest. Exploring our own backyard is just as important as traveling far, so I will share our favorite walking paths and parks to playing in our very own back yard with our boys. Getting out of our house and being active is what get out and go is all about.

My weekend favorites...

A celebration of us.

This past Friday we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with beers, sushi and sugar cream pie. Three of our favorites! Then spent the rest of the weekend hanging out all together.

Get out and go...

Hiking.

Since summer is over and our schedules have gotten busier our weekends of camping and hiking are pretty much so over. We are hopeful for an event free weekend with warm weather to get one last family camping trip in. If we are unable to make that happen, we are pretty lucky to be centrally located between all of our state parks, that day trips are possible and we are even luckier that we don't have to travel far to get to some great local parks for playing, walking, running or hiking. 

Here are three of my favorite parks in the area that we regularly explore and play in.

Play ground in Forrest Park.

Most weeks we take advantage of our great city and county parks. At least once a week we walk, run or play through Forrest Park in Noblesville. Our city has done a great job with the trail system. We are able to walk a few blocks to a trail head and then in less than one mile we are inside this great wooded park with paved trails, playgrounds, a skate park, basketball courts, tennis courts, swimming pool, baseball fields, golf course and shelters. It's an awesome gem! 

Paved Path to Potters Bridge

There are several side trails off the paved trail, down to the river.

White River from the trails connected to Forrest Park.

Fall Creek in Ft. Harrison State Park

Then when we have some time but can't take an entire day to hike we head out to Ft. Harrison State Park, aka Ft. Ben, in Lawerence. This is a great place for all level of hikers. There are seven different trails with just over 11 miles of hiking ranging from easy to moderate. There is a trail called Harrison Trace Trail that is a 2.5 mile loop all paved and hilly, it is one of the two easy trails. It can give you a great challenge as the hilly areas are a significant incline and decline but all paved making for an easier walk or run. I love taking the boys here on my own because Emerson can walk any of the trails and Rhys is content riding on my back. The moderate trails are rugged enough for experienced hikers to be challenged.

Syd enjoying an awesome fall day at Ft. Ben.

Our expert hikers being daring.

Watching the geese at the Duck Pond in Ft. Ben

The Ruins at Holliday Park

Last, one of my favorite city parks of all, Holliday Park in Indianapolis. I love everything about this park. It has a great back story and ruins. A city park that has ruins is pretty amazing, by my standards. The ruins are currently being worked on to restore them to their original purpose, which is pretty interesting.  There are 3.5 miles of trails that go through ravines, past natural springs and down to the White River that always gives me a great workout. The nature center is a great interactive place for kids, one of the best I have seen. The playgrounds are awesome and there are lots of gardens and open spaces for great family and friend gatherings.

Holliday Park Ravine Trail 6

Trail that leads down to the White River.

Holliday Park Nature Center

My little hiking partner at the end of hiking Holliday Park.

These are a few of my favorite parks, that I wish I was able to enjoy more especially on these Indian summer like days. I like these three because all of them have great potential for exploration and play. I love that they all have easy and moderate paths and trails, that the boys can learn to walk, run and hike on. Also, they all have pretty great playgrounds, so the boys can burn off the little bit of energy they may have left after hiking. Lastly, all of them are some of the best places to spend a day with your family.

Hopefully, we have a day that has great weather, no tasks or events, and enough energy to keep up with the boys for a great day of hiking. But for now, afternoons in our own backyard are fulfilling our need to get out and go.

Get out and go is about more than traveling, it's about getting outside and being active right outside in your own backyard. 

The doctor will see you now...

Words that we all want to hear within minutes of entering the waiting room.

This past week found us with two sick boys. First Rhys, then Emerson. This meant two trips to the doctor's office.

Taking Rhys was pretty simple. Emerson was in school so I only had one kid to juggle. Rhys was feeling so terrible that the only thing he wanted to do was sit on my lap and snuggle. He doesn't like going to the doctor anyways and usually sits in my lap and fights the doctor and nurses off. So, waiting our turn in the waiting room was pretty easy.

You would never guess that he was sick in this picture.

Emerson on the other hand, is never simple. I am pretty sure that kid could be puking and still bouncing off the walls. He is hard to keep down.

This leads me to our trip to the doctor for Emerson. We went on Monday and I had both boys home that day. We got an early appointment hoping that the waiting room wouldn't be full of patients. On the short ride to the office, I told the boys that when we got there they needed to sit on the chairs and wait for Emerson to be called back.

We walked into an office full of people, mostly because a family with four kids and another with three were taking up half the waiting room. They were all sitting quietly in the seats reading books and whispering to each other. That was when I got a little nervous.

So, I checked Emerson in and I got handed a clip board with a form to fill out. I wanted to throw it right back and say something along the lines of, "Can't you see I have two little boys with me? Filling out paper work isn't going to happen." I didn't, I dropped the boys hands, grabbed the clip board and pen, and smiled. That is when, I believe all control was lost.

The boys walked with me to where I wanted all of us to sit and immediately started bouncing from seat to seat, running around and finding their favorite hiding spot. There are two couches that sit back to back with enough room in between them that my boys believe is a fort that they can hide in. I would let them stay there if I knew everyone in the office was ok with it because they are not hurting anything but pretty sure it's not acceptable.

I got them to stop hiding in the fort and to stay by me but then Emerson decided to crawl underneath the end table in the corner. Great! So, I asked him why he wanted to be under the table, his answer, "I just want to play."

"Well, this in not the place to play and I need to you get up and sit on the chair and wait for the nurse to come call you back and this isn't acceptable behavior and all these people in here don't want to hear me talking gently to you for behaving poorly over and over again." As I am saying these things, wanting to scream my head off, Rhys is peering over the arm of the couch at us. He is laughing at us and making Emerson laugh, which makes my head want to pop off.

Then Rhys starts patting my head and repeating what I am saying to Emerson and in a super quick second he grabs a handful of my hair that is pulled back in a pony tail and starts singing, "I got your hair."

That moment, that moment right there, was when I smiled, because I knew how ugly, unruly and out of control it looked. I kept from laughing but all I could see was a picture in my mind of how we looked, which is exactly what motherhood looks like, a hot mess at times.

I got Rhys to let go and Emerson out from under the end table and shuffled them across the hall to the bathroom to compose ourselves and when we walked back into the office it was a little better. Finally, after those few minutes that felt like an hour I got both of them to sit down and then we were called back.

I kid you not, while in the exam room they both sat perfectly in their chairs and did exactly what they were told to do. Then they calmly walked out of the office holding my hands.

As I melted into the drivers seat, thinking about how that could have possible gone better. I came up with the idea that the doctors office should have pagers like restaurants. That way you can take your kids back to your car or walk around with them while waiting.

We have many great outings with our boys but the few that are just like this make it hard. I am thankful that we keep trying because we both know that we are raising strong, independent, productive men of our society.

Sleepy Superman...

One tired little boy after a day of being Superman. He fell asleep on daddy's lap. This little crime fighter has been working hard fighting a sickness. 

This is my favorite picture of the weekend. 

Things I love...

Home improvement projects.

A couple weeks ago I was at a friends house, they have several projects going on at their house. We talked about what they were doing, their plans and their wants for future projects. All the talk got me to thinking about some of our unfinished projects at home. Mostly, the touch up painting and staining of our deck and wood furniture.

I had hired a contractor to finish, fix and paint some small things on the outside of our house. He had dripped paint on our deck and I asked him to please clean it up. He said he would pressure wash the deck and if we wanted sand and stain it. We said yes because it had been on our list of things to do for almost as long as we have known each other. 

He pressure washed the deck and then it rained a couple of days and then we went out of town and then two weeks had passed and then his ladders and things were gone. I am not sure what happened but oh well because he didn't leave us with more work than when he started. 

Rhys playing on the deck. This shows what the deck and the furniture looked like.

So, back to the day with my friend. All of our talk got me to thinking about our project and calling up the contractor and having him come finish. Then, by the time I got home that afternoon I had convinced myself that I could get the sander out to finishing prepping the deck and stain it myself. I already had the stain, so why not. 

Prep work almost complete.

When Eric got home two hours later I was almost finished with the prepping. We tested the stain and we loved it. I planned to finish the project over the next few days. 

We were so happy with the deck that it made staining all the furniture that much easier. It took a long time but finally after nine days of working on picking out the right kind of stain, picking up supplies and doing the actual work, everything is stained. 

The hardest part of the entire project was having the time to do it. Time is the reason why we had put it off for so long to begin with. Also, I know once I start a project if I don't finish it all the way, it might be years before I get back to it. 

Even though I knew it should have taken a few days to complete everything with out distractions, that is not my reality. I learned to work each part into sections so I could still give pushes on the swing or find a snack or break up an argument. 

When I finished the last piece of furniture I felt so accomplished. Now, every time I look out our back windows or return home and walk up to the door, I smile.